EU organic logo: FiBL commentary

According to Urs Niggli, Director of the Research Institute of Organic Agriculture FiBL and member of the jury, the harsh criticism of the organic stakeholders over the 3 proposed organic logos is not justified.

3 final designs for a European organic logo

A jury of four leading European graphical designers and of four organic experts as well as the former bicycle racer Miguel Indurain, selected ten logos from several thousand submission by young graphical designers and design students. The criteria for the selection were clearly defined, e.g. they should give the message of organic agriculture and of EU origin in a picture, not in words; the logo should be easily recognisable, have high quality graphical design elements and should be applicable in different colours and sizes on food labels. The young designer contest started in May 2009, the jury selected in July 2009.

After legal, administrative and other investigations, the European Commission selected, from the 10 proposals selected by the jury, the three above mentioned logos for a public internet vote which is open now until the end of January 2010.

It did not come much as a surprise that once published, the three proposals aroused a lot of criticism.

According to Urs Niggli, all three logos which are proposed by the Commission are eligible. It is a very good range submitted to public voting by the Commission. Each of them has a real potential to become an EU-wide appreciated logo. It is now important to insist vis-à-vis the Commission, that the final logo has to be used with a word-mark “organic” in the respective national language.

The full text of the commentary by Urs Niggli can be viewed at the FiBL homepage.

Source: New EU organic logo: Commentary by Urs Niggli, December 23, 2009

EU organic logo: FiBL commentary

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